CJEM Articles: faculty development

Displaying 1-3 of 3 results

  • May 2011 13 3
    David Lendrum, Glen Bandiera

    Objectives: Controversy exists regarding the applicability of competency-based education during clinical rotations in emergency medicine (EM). Little has been written about the perceptions of front-line teachers regarding one such competency-based education paradigm, the CanMEDS framework. We undertook to determine 1) what perceptions exist among front-line teachers at two academic health science emergency departments (EDs) regarding the use of the CanMEDS roles to frame what residents should learn on ED rotations and 2) how those same teachers envision practically incorporating the CanMEDS roles into feedback provided to residents.

    Methods: Teachers at two sites volunteered for a semistructured focus group study. Focus groups were moderated by an experienced qualitative researcher, and verbatim transcriptions were coded by two independent reviewers. The codes were merged into final themes. The final focus group was used to further explore issues raised and test assumptions made in the preceding groups.

    Results: In five focus groups involving 21 participants, the Medical Expert and Professional roles were seen as most relevant to an EM rotation, whereas the Health Advocate, Manager, Scholar, and Collaborator roles were least relevant. On further exploration, however, faculty identified highly relevant components of each role that they could envision teaching in an ED. Participants also felt that the framework helped highlight the breadth of physician competencies and provided structure for teaching and feedback.

    Conclusions: EM faculty find the CanMEDS framework helpful for structuring teaching and learning and that many elements of the roles, when defined, are feasible to integrate into a clinical rotation.

  • September 2005 7 5
    Glen Bandiera, John Foote, Shirley Lee

    Background: Faculty development initiatives to improve emergency department (ED) teaching are compromised by the paucity of information about what behaviours and characteristics are desirable in an emergency medicine (EM) teacher.

    Objectives: To design and evaluate a learner-centred, interactive faculty development workshop based on original ED teaching research.

    Methods: Registrants for a university-based faculty development workshop on ED teaching completed a needs assessment and pre-workshop self-reflection exercise. Responses were grouped into 3 themes derived from the ambulatory teaching literature and a recent survey of expert clinical EM teachers and learners. Participants underwent a half-day workshop consisting of 1 large group interactive session and 3 small group sessions using role playing, practice reflection, real time review of hard copy resources, and brainstorming. Evaluation included a post-event ordinal scale questionnaire and a 4-month follow-up short answer survey, both measuring participants' perceptions of workshop effectiveness.

    Results: Fifteen faculty participated. The needs assessment identified "Common mistakes," "Teaching efficiently" and "Dealing with the difficult learner" as themes. All 15 completed evaluations, rating the workshop as relevant (4.6/5), specific to their needs (4.4/5) and useful (4.5/5). At 4 months, 10 out of 10 respondents reported success at implementing new techniques and 8 reported greater confidence in teaching. The most common new techniques were: setting better learning objectives, giving better feedback, actively seeking teaching opportunities, and identifying a teaching point.

    Conclusions: Learner-centred faculty development meets perceived needs of faculty and can result in participants trying new teaching strategies.

  • January 2005 7 1
    Glen W. Bandiera, Laurie Morrison

    Background: Little is known about factors affecting emergency physician attendance at formal academic teaching sessions or what emergency physicians believe to be the benefits derived from attending these activities.

    Objectives: To determine what factors influence emergency medicine faculty attendance at formal academic rounds, what benefits they derive from attendance, and what differences in perceptions there are between full-time clinical and part-time clinical academic faculty.

    Methods: A survey was sent to all emergency physicians with academic appointments at one institution. Responses were tabulated dichotomously (yes/no) for checklist answers and analyzed using a 2-person grounded theory approach for open answers based on an a priori analysis plan. Differences between full-time and part-time faculty were compared using the chi-squared test for significance.

    Results: Response rate was 73.8% (48/65). Significant impediments to attendance included clinical responsibilities (75%), professional responsibilities (52.1%), personal responsibilities (33.3%), location (31.2%) and time (27.1%). Perceived benefits of attending rounds were: continuing medical education, social interaction, teaching opportunities, interaction with residents, comparing one's practice with peers, improving teaching techniques, and enjoyment of the format. There were no statistically significant differences between groups' responses.

    Conclusions: Emergency physicians in our study attend formal teaching sessions infrequently, suggesting that the perceived benefits do not outweigh impediments to attendance. The single main impediment, competing responsibilities, is difficult to modify for emergency physicians. Strategies to increase faculty attendance should focus on enhancing the main perceived benefits: continuing medical education, social interaction and educational development. Faculty learn from themselves and from residents during formal teaching sessions.